Attitudes towards gifted students were examined in 942 primary preservice teachers and 528 secondary preservice teachers from five New South Wales universities, taking into account the interaction of ability, gender and effort. It was found that the primary preservice teachers generally considered the average student more desirable than the gifted, with a clear preference for students not to be studious. Secondary preservice teachers appeared to prefer those who did not apply themselves too diligently, but they did not differentiate on the basis of ability level or gender of the student. It is noteworthy that the gifted-studious female was at the bottom of both the primary and the secondary scales. A gifted female' s desirability fluctuated markedly according to her degree of application to study. This research suggests that being gifted and striving toward academic success at school does not appear to elicit the support one would imagine from future classroom teachers.